As far as magical abilities went, Alaster thought he had a good one. Being able to read another person’s mind was endlessly useful. However, his control of his ability was limited. He could not turn it on and off, and as a result, he often overheard thoughts from his companions at random. This was not well received, and half of them didn’t trust him much in the first place, so Alaster soon learned to keep most of what he overheard to himself.
Thrust into this mess with no warning, unable to control his ability or do anything else at all useful, Alaster spent a great deal of his time walking in silence. When he could, he stuck close to his sister and the nelfkin. He didn’t like either of them, but he knew them better than anyone else in the group.
They didn’t like him much either, however, and although they both made the occasional effort to reach out to him, they avoided him most of the time.
Every day, the group walked, and Alaster walked with them. Every night, they slept on the ground, unless they were lucky enough to find a tavern. It had been several days since Alaster had been forced to join this insane quest, and in that time, they had only found one tavern. Alaster had been obliged to share a room with Kniles, the half-elf who doted on the brainless sorceress, Gwuryn, the human knight, and Gwuryn’s dwarf manservant (dwarfservant?), Borli.
Overhearing Kniles’ thoughts was mildly irritating, but only because the half-elf seemed to only ever think about Zi. Kniles was smitten, of that there was no doubt, and though Alaster could not deny that Zi was uncommonly beautiful, he did not understand the appeal. To each their own, he supposed.
Gwuryn, on the other hand, was entirely different experience. Alaster did not like him. Well, in fairness, Alaster didn’t like any of them. He did not consider himself their friend so much as their prisoner. But he especially disliked Gwuryn.
Never in his life had he met a person so inappropriate as Gwuryn. He disagreed with nearly everything that came from the human’s mouth, or thought it improper. The man’s mouth, however, had nothing on his mind. Overhearing snatches of Gwuryn’s thoughts was consistently scandalizing and appalling.
The first time, Alaster had been trudging along beside the man, silently cursing his blistered feet, which were not used to such constant use. Gwuryn, who had by then nicknamed Alaster “Pansy” and gotten almost everyone else to start calling him that as well, was quiet, but he was staring ahead of them, where Zi and Fae were having an animated discussion.
“I’d like to let that Fae handle my sword.”
The thought came out of nowhere and Alaster nearly tripped over his cloak in his surprise. He turned to look at Gwuryn, his mouth open in shock, and the human glanced at him in curiosity. Somehow, he could tell by the look on Alaster’s face that Alaster had heard the comment about Fae, because he smirked and proceeded to make lewd hand gestures until Alaster looked away from him.
As it turned out, it was easier for Alaster to pick up on a thought if the person who was thinking it was trying to direct the thought at him. Alaster discovered this because Gwuryn had taken up torturing him for fun. The human would purposefully walk near Alaster and think atrocious thoughts about nearly all of the female members of the party, including the wolf that wasn’t cursed.
In the morning, Gwuryn might remark in his mind on his desire to “plunder the silken channel” of Zi the elf. By lunchtime, he’d usually have also expressed his desire to “suckle the breasts” of Alaster’s sister or “ride that nelfkin like a cowboy” or let Shadow “blow his mighty schlong.”
Alaster was in hell. Never had he heard someone use this sort of language. Gwuryn’s mind seemed filled with perverted comments, and they only got more creative over time. Alaster was Gwuryn’s captive audience, and so Alaster spent day after day walking with his head bowed and his hood pulled over his face to hide the almost permanent blush on his face.
If he reacted to Gwuryn’s torments at all, Gwuryn took note. Because Alaster nearly always choked or tripped when Gwuryn thought anything about his sister, Gwuryn frequently thought nasty things about Fae.
He didn’t even like Fae. She was his sister but she was a disgrace. No part of him wanted anything to do with her. And yet, it infuriated him that Gwuryn would dare think about her like that. It was because Gwuryn was doing it on purpose. The man was actively humiliating Alaster and there was nothing Alaster could do but stew in silence, because he sure as hell wasn’t going to accuse the man out loud of thinking dirty thoughts at him.
So by the time he’d been forced to sleep in the same room as the man, his nerves were shot. His night was spent curled in a fetal position with his hands over his ears, as though that might block out the constant barrage of lewd thoughts coming from the man. The next day, he was not in the best of moods, to say the least.
That morning, Shadow decided to walk beside Alaster. Whatever her reasons for this were, Alaster wasn’t sure. He never seemed to hear her thoughts, or those of that bloody dog she called her sister, and this unnerved him a bit. Perhaps, he reasoned, their minds were too animalistic for even his admittedly remarkable ability to translate. After all, he never heard random thoughts from the various forms of wildlife they passed as they traveled.
Alaster stared at the wolf-whatever-she-was, wondering what had possessed her to do such a thing. She stared back at him with a serene smile and asked him how he was enjoying their walk today.
“Oh, well,” Alaster floundered, quite unprepared for someone to ask him something so reasonable. “I suppose it could be worse.”
And then, as if by magic, it was worse. Gwuryn appeared on Alaster’s other side as though from thin air. Feeling the tall knight’s presence before he saw him, Alaster turned slowly to see Gwuryn staring back at him, his helmet under one arm. Gwuryn waggled his eyebrows at Alaster, and Alaster knew he was in for it now.
Shadow didn’t seem to notice Gwuryn and she just kept chatting. “Indeed, it could be raining, like it was yesterday. My boots are still drying out. I do detest being wet.”
“I’ll bet I could make her like being wet,” came Gwuryn’s rude commentary. Alaster wasn’t even surprised anymore.
“Yes, uhm, me too,” he told Shadow lamely. Small talk was actually something he was quite familiar with, but nothing he’d experienced since leaving Vana Vale had thus far seemed small enough for small talk, never minding that there wasn’t really anyone who wanted to have small talk with him. Except Shadow, the weird human-wolf thing, apparently.
“Oh, you’d like it too. Wet’s the way to go. Bet I could make Shadow wet her panties at the mere sight of my grand endowment. What say you, little man?”
Alaster wanted to shout “why are you doing this to me?” His face had turned bright scarlet and he was so very glad that Shadow could not hear Gwuryn’s thoughts like he could. Any fairy man who spoke in such a way about a fairy woman back in Vana Vale would have been thought a most contemptible person. It just wasn’t done.
Shadow said, “It would be nice if we had something to ride, like horses or a wagon.”
“I’ve got something for you to ride right here, mademoiselle. All aboard for the Gwuryn Express, prepare for a bit of a jostle!”
It wasn’t fair, Alaster thought glumly to himself. Sure, he got the general impression from everyone that he wasn’t their favorite person. But what could he have done to deserve this constant torment? If he had to hear anything else about Gwuryn’s “grand endowment,” he was going to lose his mind.
Seemingly disturbed by Alaster’s subdued behavior, Shadow moved off to the front of the group. Alaster could see her talking to his sister, who glanced back over her shoulder at him as though she was concerned. Alaster tensed, knowing that Gwuryn had likely noticed.
“Hey, Pansy,” said Gwuryn out loud, “you look a bit pale.”
Please, Alaster thought to himself, please don’t think rude things about the witch. All of Gwuryn’s rude thoughts about the women in their party were atrocious, but having to listen to the man think nasty things about his twin was pushing him to the outer limits of his self-control.
“I wonder if Fae would agree to polish my disco stick?”
“Your what now?” Alaster sputtered out loud. What bloody hell was a disco stick? Another euphemism for the man’s penis, no doubt.
Fae looked back at him again, frowning. No, don’t come back here, Alaster silently begged.
“I’d like to play catch with her squish mitten.”
“Good god, man, she’s my sister!” Alaster erupted, his face red as a beet from both embarrassment and indignation. “Have some decency! I can’t bloody well function like this anymore, for the love of Chelsa, please just stop!”
Gwuryn regarded him with such a genuine look of confusion that Alaster himself was nearly taken in by it. “My dear Pansy, I haven’t the faintest clue to what you might be referring. I have nothing but the utmost respect for our dear Lady Fae. That you should think otherwise is a great surprise to me. What have I done to earn such an outburst?”
“Respect? You respect her?” No way, Alaster was not going to let the cretin pretend that he hadn’t been tormenting Alaster with disturbing sexual comments for the last few days. “What was all that about having her polish your disco stick, then? Was that respect?”
The party had stopped walking at this point and most everyone was staring at Gwuryn and Alaster in shocked silence. Fae, in particular, looked most appalled.
“What the hell are you two going on about?” Blue demanded, having only caught the part about someone’s “disco stick” getting polished. “We don’t have time for this, Alaster, just suck it up and deal with it.”
“But he…!” Alaster struggled for words. “He’s thinking the most inappropriate things about all of you and he’s doing it on purpose!”
How Gwuryn managed to look so innocent, Alaster could not say, but the expression on the man’s face resembled that of a kicked puppy.
“Sir, I find your accusations most distasteful,” said Gwuryn. “I assure you that any thoughts I might have for our admittedly lovely companions have been meant with the sincerest respect. Have you been listening to my thoughts without my permission? Such a breach of privacy! I feel violated!”
Alaster was pretty sure that if anyone should feel violated, it was him. He regarded Gwuryn with an expression of utter contempt. “You know I’ve been hearing them! I know you’ve been thinking them at me on purpose, you disgusting pervert.”
“Thinking them at you?” Gwuryn repeated, as though this was quite a foreign concept to him. “How does one think thoughts at another person, exactly? I’m not sure I understand how that would even work, but I’m quite sure I’d rather my thoughts remained my own, thank you very much.”
“I’ve heard enough,” said Blue. “Alaster, stop listening to his thoughts, people don’t like that. Gwuryn, why don’t you bring up the rear for a while, keep an eye out for hostiles? I want space between the two of you, and no more talk about disco sticks, thanks very much. All settled? Good, let’s get moving again.”
“But,” Alaster started to object, even as everyone started walking again. “I swear, I wasn’t listening to his thoughts on purpose! I bloody well wouldn’t do that, they’re disgusting!”
His sister fell back to walk beside him. Thankfully, Gwuryn did as Blue asked him and took up the rear of the party. Alaster, feeling a right fool, bowed his head and avoided looking his sister in the eyes.
Admittedly, looking her in the eyes right now was already difficult, considering all of the things Gwuryn had thought about her. He felt guilty for having heard those things in the first place. She might be a witch and a disgrace, but she was still his blood.
“What was all that about then?” Fae asked. “I’m not judging. I just want to know your side of things.”
“Look, the lot of you might think I’m a terrible, unpleasant burden and all, but I wouldn’t make up stories about someone disrespecting my own sister, thank you very much.”
Alaster’s shoulders hunched, his arms crossed over his chest. He’d never thought of himself as a bad person before this bunch of idiots kidnapped him and forced him to join their quest. A bit spoiled, perhaps, but he didn’t go around torturing people or disrespecting women. Just because he thought this quest was stupid, that didn’t mean he wanted the realm to live in fear. He wasn’t a hero, that was for damn sure, but he wasn’t the villain they all made him out to be.
“I believe you,” Fae said, to his surprise. He looked at her then and saw that she was smiling at him. “You’ve never called me your sister before. It’s kind of nice. I didn’t know you cared.”
“I don’t!” Alaster objected, more out of habit than anything else. “... Maybe I care a little. He really is a horrible man.”
Fae patted his shoulder to console him. “Oh, I think he’s just messing with you. Sir Gwuryn is a pervert, of that I have no doubt, but he has defended us many times. You must know, Alaster, that most of them have been teasing you. We aren’t like you. We aren’t proper and genteel and all that. But we don’t hate you.”
“Speak for yourself,” said Blue from nearby and Alaster ignored her.
“This isn’t my idea of a good time, damn it all,” Alaster muttered. “I didn’t want to come on this quest. I was happy where I was.”
A silence fell between them, and for a moment Alaster found himself worrying that he’d made her angry and she was going to walk away. Why he cared, he couldn’t really fathom, except that she was the closest thing he had to family out here and he didn’t have anything else.
If she was a disgrace, he supposed that he had become a disgrace as well. After the way they’d left Vana Vale, his people would be none too thrilled about taking him back. If he couldn’t go home, all he could do was stick it out with these people, and he needed at least one ally.
“I wish things were different,” Fae said, breaking the silence. “I’m sorry you were dragged into this, I really am. But these people, they’re not so bad. They would be your friends if you would let them. I would be your friend.”
Alaster had not done a damn thing to deserve Fae’s friendship and he knew it. He could only stare at the ground in shame, because he couldn’t bring himself to admit it out loud. But he felt her hand squeeze his shoulder before she stepped away from him again to rejoin Shadow at the front of the party.
He didn’t like her, he really didn’t. But maybe he didn’t like other people treating her like less than a person. Maybe he’d reacted to Gwuryn so negatively because he’d come to realize that Fae deserved respect as much as anyone else. And he was as responsible for disrespecting her as Gwuryn, in his own way. He hadn’t thought her a proper fairy. He’d been told she was an abomination, a freak of nature, an undesirable. And now that he knew it wasn’t true, he couldn’t abide another person treating her like that.
- Rachel
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